The Cabinet of Dr Caligari Film Review

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari Film Review

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) is a highly theatrical film. Many of the elements of the visual presentation are more what we would now associate with a theatre production than a large-scale movie franchise. The sets and makeup are highly graphical and lack any large amounts of detail, however it is easily one of the most influential films in progressing our cinema forward to the point at which we are now, and many of the concepts/methods used in this film are still highly applicable today.

The sets strongly use famous works of art and/or artists to influence and give them direction. For example, Alan’s house is highly reminiscent of the Bedroom in Arles by Vincent van Gough. See Figure 1 and 2 below.

Figure 1. Screenshot from opening of Dr Caligari (1920)

Figure 2. Bedroom in Arles (1888)

Although the set for Alan’s bedroom is not an exact copy, there are clear similarities in the way that the room is arranged and presented. This is highly interesting as the painting in Fig. 2 was painted a few months before Van Gough’s unfortunate demise, at a time during which he was clearly disturbed. This draws interesting parallels to the behaviour and state of mind of Francis (the lead male in the movie), who seems to be delusional about his situation and seems to perceive the world entirely differently to everyone around him. Although the room we see in Fig. 1 belongs to Alan, we only ever see Francis’ perception of the room, not anyone else’s. It is there for possible that it is meant to be a subtle reference to the deteriorating state of Francis’ mental health. As P.G. Wodehouse (1916) says in his novel Uneasy Money,

“A man’s subconscious self is not the ideal companion. It lurks for the greater part of his life in some dark den of its own, hidden away, and emerges only to taunt and deride and increase the misery of a miserable hour.”

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari is also a key example of the Expressionist movement in its styling and art style. The art directors clearly decided that they wanted to make a world that was as strange and challenging as possible. For this reason, they made the architectural decision to eliminate perfectly straight lines from many of the sets, opting instead for more curved or irregular shapes. These give the movie a highly unique aesthetic and contribute to the gothic feel that radiates from the styling. This is also contributed to using strong and highly striking greasepaint style makeup both on the male and female cast. The entire way that the costume designers, makeup designers and art directors have decided to portray the settings and characters tie together to form a very interesting, deep and intense aesthetic. The makeup artists have added to the natural features of Werner Krauss (Dr Caligari) for his “mad professor” persona, to create a stronger, more striking character, and aid his acting in portraying the extremes that his character required. This combined with the striking sets leads to a incredibly strong portrayal.

Its also worth noting that in his “evil” persona, he wears white gloves. These were traditionally worn by mime artists, however have more recently been worn by characters who are intended to be hiding something. This would make sense as in Francis’ mind Dr Caligari is hiding his true intentions and behaviours from the rest of the community and only he is aware of them. It is worth noting that many villains in this period wore white gloves, and makes it a particularly interesting that Walt Disney chose to put his favourite creations in white gloves. Walt Disney (1954) did explain:

“We didn't want him to have mouse hands, because he was supposed to be more human. So we gave him gloves. Five Fingers looked like too much on such a little figure, so we took one away. That was just one less finger to animate.”

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari also has a strong use of Chiaroscuro. This is purposely heightened, beyond the effect of the monochrome film itself, as it adds to the Gothic feel as well as framing and emphasising key ideas and/or characters. The art team decided to paint fake shadows onto walls, use closed down shots and heavy eye makeup to create tension and suspense in shots such as the image of Caeser (Fig. 3). His heavy eye makeup and the shadow created on his face makes him seem a lot more supernatural and shocking than if it had been entirely natural lighting.

Figure 3. Caeser (1920)

The gestures and facial expressions used in silent movies also have their own language, much in the same way as classical ballet, and are often viewed to be an extension of Victorian Melodrama. The over-enlarged movements are used to keep the audience engaged through-out the film sections of the movie, knowing full well that they will have to sit and read through all the subtitles afterwards. As with ballet, it is expected that the standardised movements will allow the audience to understand what is happening whilst the action is taking place, rather than restricting them to finding out later, after the event has already taken place.

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, alongside many other films of this period, present us with a lot of conflicts, both as an anachronistic outsider and considering the complete context of the piece. However, I believe this is part of its charm. Although the subtitles can sometimes make it a little difficult to get lost in the story, the actual quality of the filming and the highly technical (for the period) special effects that have been used are truly one of the major stepping stones to getting to where we are in cinema today. Not the easiest film to watch in one sitting, but one that all film makers should watch as part of their education. 

List of illustrations:

Figure 1. Screenshot from opening of Dr Caligari (1920) [Screenshot] At: http://741836.weebly.com/german-cinema-german-expressionism/german-expressionism-cinema-or-theatre (Accessed on 23.09.2017)

Figure 2. Bedroom in Arles (1888) [Oil Painting] At: http://www.parisprovencevangogh.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/van-gogh-bedroom-at-arles.jpg (Accessed on 23.09.2017)

Figure 3. Caeser (1920) [Screenshot] At: http://www.edisonstudio.it/wp-content/uploads/CaligariCesareOcchiAperti2.jpg (Accessed on 23.09.2017)

Bibliography:

Chare, N. and Watkins, L. (2015) Introduction: gesture in film At: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14797585.2014.920189 (Accessed 23.09.2017)

Edison studios (2016) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: Music for Cinema. At: http://www.edisonstudio.it/en/portfolio-items/opera-edison-2/ (Accessed on 23.09.2017)

Guardian (2014) Why does Mickey Mouse wear gloves? Are there any films in which he isn't wearing them? At: https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-1495,00.html (Accessed on 23.09.2017)

Katz, S. (1991) Film directing shot by shot. Michigan, USA: Focal Press

Kibley, P. (2016) Cracking the code: The meaning of mime in ballet At: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/cracking-the-code-the-meaning-of-mime-in-ballet (Accessed 23.09.2017) 

Wodehouse, P. G. (1916) Uneasy Money. USA: D. Appleton & Co